{"id":29652,"date":"2019-01-18T12:23:55","date_gmt":"2019-01-18T12:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=29652"},"modified":"2019-01-18T12:23:55","modified_gmt":"2019-01-18T12:23:55","slug":"algeria-to-hold-presidential-election-on-april-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=29652","title":{"rendered":"Algeria to hold presidential election on April 18"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Algeria<\/a> is set to hold the presidential election on April 18, the North African country’s presidency announced.<\/p>\n

It is unclear whether Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s frail 81-year-old president who has been in power since 1999, will stand for a fifth consecutive term.<\/p>\n

Djamel Ould Abbes, the former chief of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), was sacked in November, a month after he announced that Bouteflika would be the party’s candidate in the presidential poll.<\/p>\n

“Bouteflika… is the candidate of the FLN for the presidential election,” Ould Abbes was quoted as saying following a meeting with legislators from the party last year.<\/p>\n

“His candidacy has been demanded by all the FLN cadres and activists across the country,” he said.<\/p>\n

Bouteflika, who has been confined to a wheelchair since suffering a stroke in 2013, last addressed the nation more than six years ago.<\/p>\n

If he wins, he will be 87 by the time Algeria’s following elections are held.<\/p>\n

More than 40 percent of Algeria’s 41 million population is under 25 and many of them know no leader other than Bouteflika.<\/p>\n

Many Algerians have chosen peace and stability over political reform, pointing at the devastation in neighbouring Libya as a result of the country’s revolution and political turmoil.<\/p>\n

In 2014, in light of the president’s failing health, the military thought it unwise for Bouteflika to run for a fourth term.<\/p>\n

However, in a rare moment of indecision, the army is believed to have conceded to the ailing president’s demands, deeming it necessary to preserve stability in times of uncertainty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Algeria is set to hold the presidential election on April 18, the North African country’s presidency announced. It is unclear whether Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria’s frail 81-year-old president who has been in power since 1999, will stand for a fifth consecutive term. Djamel Ould Abbes, the former chief of the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}